First, it has been obvious to me for some time that our country is going to hell in a handbasket.
For the record, I am a devout Democrat so it is my firm belief that George Bush is the Anti-Christ. This guy has single handedly made it so that when I travel out of the country I have to claim that I am Canadian just so I don't get egged on the street. But Bushie's real damage to our nation has come in his treatment of the education system. First, he passes No Child Left Behind which is designed to make it so that students in school are tested about once a week. Now he and his Republican cronies in Congress are pushing a voucher program through, systematically robbing our schools of funds so that a few parents can claim they have school choice. The simple fact is that vouchers aren't enough to cover the private school tuition anyway so all it does is take much needed money out of public schools. Clearly, this man must be stopped!!
One of my main passions in life is the game of baseball. No other sport is full of the same drama and human element as our national pastime. Football is a very cerebral and yet brutal game (that my wife hates with the burning white passion of a thousand suns). Basketball is by far the most athletic sport, but pro ball has become to much of a schoolyard one on one contest. Baseball on the other hand has three things going for it. 1) it is played every day so you live with the team for a long time, 2) Statistics and numbers give you concrete evidence that a player sucks and should be traded IMMEDIATELY and 3) It is the only sport in LA that you can go to a game and not have to mortgage your house to get a ticket. With that said, I will once again plop down in front of my TV tonight and watch my beloved Los Angeles Angels take on the woeful Kansas City Royals. Stay Tuned.on to the music...
A few years ago I had the chance to see Luna perform in New York during a music convention. I had always liked the band and thought that they were quite good. Dean Wareham was someone I had followed back in his Galaxie 500 days and I had enjoyed their first couple of records. Seeing them live changed my mind. They didn't anything amazing but sonically their music reached a whole new level over what was on record. I'm in the process of trying to find some of my live stuff of theirs to post but in the meantime here are two tracks. "Anathesia" was the first thing I heard from them and it caputures the spacey Velvet Underground type vibe of their music. The other song is a cover you probably will recognize.
(mp3) Luna -- Anathesia
(mp3) Luna -- Sweet Child o' Mine (yep that one)
The Killingtons are an Orange County band I heard one late night on KROQ(our local media giant of an alternative radio station) and was instantly intrigued. So I ran out and bought their album and was absolutey blown away. Emo Rock is something of an aquired taste and I usually leave most of that to others but this record has a nice early Smashing Pumpkins (when they were good) kind of vibe. I love the guitar in "All My Friends Are Vampires" and the other song here, "Destination Failure" has one of those choruses which once you figure out the words is something to be sung loudly when driving all alone.
(mp3) The Killingtons -- All My Friends Are Vampires
(mp3) The Killingtons -- Destination Failure
That's it for now...
2 comments:
cronhauer -
This is one of those "doom loop" things, right? (from "Good to Great") Parents feel that their kids benefit from private schooling, taking their children and their funding with them.
Leaving the school system with fewer dollars and a higher percentage of kids who are there by law and not by choice. I know this especially sucks in Pasadena.
Ok, so without debating the validity of school vouchers, and since you are an educator and not a politician, what's the answer?
Sure long term, you'd like to see the voucher system dismantled.
But facing the "brutal reality," where do you go from here? The money's gone. Sucks, but true. How does the situation get turned around despite the odds? Because if you say all hope is lost then I don't believe you because you'd go work somewhere else where you could make more money.
How do you turn it around to get the kids (and their funding) back into the public schools?
Sorry to be such a self-publicist but there's quite a lot of downloadable Luna (live and otherwise) and Galaxie 500 at my website A Head Full of Wishes...
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